Getting Reconnected At The Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach

Life is busy and sometimes we just need to take a family vacation to relax for awhile. Are you really making the most of your family time though? I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I still check e-mail, answer texts and basically remain attached at the hip to my phone. That all changed when my girls and I reconnected at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach. Find out how they’re taking family vacations to the next level with their Reconnected Family Experience.

Thanks to the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach for hosting our stay. All opinions are 100% my own.

Family beach vacations give us the perfect opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and spend quality time with the family! Now the Wyndham Grand is taking it up a notch to make these family vacations even more special. They’ve recently introduced the Reconnected Family Experience, where families are encouraged to put away the phones and other electronics to spend quality time together making memories.

Getting Reconnected At The Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach

We stayed at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach recently to see what the Reconnected Experience was all about. While I’ve stayed there a couple times before, this would be the first time I’d brought the kids with me. I was really looking forward to this girl’s trip with my two favorite cuties. We couldn’t wait to see what the Wyndham had in store for us.

We really needed this! Lately I’ve been swamped with work, a good problem to have, but I always feel a little guilty when I spend too much time on the computer and not enough with my girls. I’m always trying to find the balance but sometimes it’s just difficult. Now, for three days, I was going to drop everything and focus on nothing but family and fun!

From the minute we walked in the door, the girls were in heaven. They flipped out over the bunk beds, despite the fact that Ashling has bunk beds in her room at home. I guess there’s something even cooler about bunk beds in a hotel room! I love that even the the Wyndham Grand is a luxury hotel, it’s very kid friendly too!

The Wyndham is not only encouraging families to put down their electronics, they’re making it fun by including all kinds of activities that you can do as a family. Our room had an Adventure Backpack full of fun waiting for us. The girls couldn’t wait to dig in and see what was inside!

Here’s what it includes:

• The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions Book
• Bookmark
• Plush Fox Stuffed Animal
• Shadow Puppets How-To Guide
• One roll of Instax film
• Activity sheets
• Crayons
• S’mores pops

The kids get to take home all of the things above (so maybe it’ll get you out of buying souvenirs!).

You’ll also get to use these during your stay:

• Blanket fort kit and instructions
• Flashlight for shadow puppets
• Instax instant camera (my girls LOVED this!)
• A lockbox to store your phone and other electronics

I think I was even more excited about the fort kit than the girls were. It brought back childhood memories of my sister and I making forts with sheets and sofa pillows! You even get to choose from three different types of forts: a castle, a schoolhouse, a cave. These aren’t just any forts though. They’re designed by award winning PellOverton architects, making them a lot fancier than the ones that we build at home!

We had so much fun putting our fort together. Keira was all about helping with the build and Ashling wanted to give me instructions. She plans to be an architect one day so this was right up her alley. Once we had the structure put together, we threw sheets over the top and had ourselves a pretty awesome cave!

Next we grabbed the flashlight and made some cool shadow puppets! The girls thought my crazy animals were pretty hilarious and got a kick out of critiquing me (I may need a little more practice!). It had been a long time since we’d made shadow puppets and we enjoyed it so much that we might just make it part of our regular bedtime routine!

The girls got pretty creative with their shadow puppets, though we’re still trying to figure out exactly what kind of animal this is.

I had such a great time getting down on the floor and just playing with the girls. I was so glad that I had this chance to slow down and enjoy this time together. It’s such a cliche but kids really do grow up fast and I don’t want to ever regret working too hard and not playing enough!

Between spending the day in the pool, building forts and staying up late making shadow puppets, the girls were exhausted. Keira hates to stop playing though and didn’t want to leave the fort. No problem…I set up a bed for her and she slept in her fort all night.

I have to admit, it was hard to leave the next day! Not only is the Wyndham Grand Clearwater a beautiful hotel but I really enjoyed creating awesome memories with the girls. It also made me more aware that I need to set time aside on a regular basis to disconnect from electronics and reconnect with my family!

Looking for places to eat in Clearwater? Check out some of our favorite local restaurants!